Court Raps Delhi Civic Body

New Delhi: Castigating the MCD over garbage on roads and uncovered drains in Ghazipur where a mother-son duo died after falling into a waterlogged drain, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday said the civic administration has become a “cosy club” with its senior officers lacking the courage to take action against non-performing employees.

Warning that it would start suspending senior officials, a bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan noted that photographs of the location showed a shocking state of affairs, with waste lying along the road for months if not years, and went on to say that the MCD should be “dissolved” as it is “not serving anyone’s purpose”.

“They (MCD officials) fly like a bee and sting like a butterfly. They don’t have the courage to take action against their own officials. There is no brotherly love over here. If someone is not performing, pull him up. Senior officers have to perform an unpleasant task,” the bench, also comprising Justice Tushar Rao Gedela.

“Your officers are now becoming goody-goodies. They can’t take any action. Look at these photographs. Shocking state of affairs in a place like Delhi. No wonder we have dengue, chikungunya,” the bench said, said pulling up senior officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

The court said that authorities ought to have closed or barricaded the open drains in the area and questioned how many lives should be lost before they understood the “gravity of the situation”.

“How can it be unbarricaded? You think people will walk over water? Only MCD officials can be having this blessing that they can walk over water,” the court remarked.

The bench asserted that senior officers were not exercising the power of supervision, because of which “no one is working”.

“How much waste and debris is lying there. You took over the road (last year). What have you done on this stretch of road? Today your department thinks doing work is a crime… We will start suspending senior officials,” the court said.

“No one takes action against each other. It is not supposed to be a cosy club. The administration has become a very very cozy club. Checks and balances have all gone lost…. Every day there are deaths due to negligence,” it stated.

The court, which sought the presence of the MCD deputy commissioner (DC) concerned before it during the hearing, asked that the open drains be barricaded and the area be cleaned.

The court also raised concerns with respect to the absence of the standing committee of MCD and no date scheduled for the next cabinet meeting, and said its officers seemed to be “beyond redemption”.

“They are all big boss.. MCD is not serving anyone’s purpose. Let it be dissolved,” an exasperated court said.

It also directed the DDA, which also owns a portion of the drain in the area, to barricade the open drains and file a status report.

With both DDA and MCD counsel maintaining that the incident did not take place in their respective jurisdictions, the court said it was “not getting into” the issue and asked the police to complete its investigation promptly.

The court emphasised that there cannot be “black holes” in the city with certain areas being without the superintendence of any authority.

The MCD counsel said in the instant case, there was no confusion with respect to the demarcation of their respective jurisdictions on the road in question and the issue was only of determination of the exact spot where the deceased fell into the open drain.

The court said the incident showed there was “criminal negligence” and asked the investigating officer to file a status report and listed the matter for further hearing on August 22.

“Let the police investigate. Ensure the investigation gets completed quickly. He must be alive to the situation. The investigation is going on at a slow pace. Two people have lost their lives,” the court said.

The investigating officer, who was also present in court, informed that an inquiry was going on and notices had been sent to the MCD as well as the DDA in pursuant to an FIR registered for offences under section 106 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for “causing death by negligence”.

The DC informed the court that drains were being covered and the civic authority was undertaking the work of cleaning the area but being near the border, a lot of garbage was coming from the Uttar Pradesh side.

The court took a strong exception to the officer “arguing” on the issue instead of giving an assurance of taking corrective measures, saying the situation could not be any worse.

“This (garbage) is for months if not years. The problem is this – you don’t work. And none of the seniors have the guts to take action against you. The whole city has to suffer because of people like you. Even if you don’t come to work, it can’t be worse than this,” the court said.

“He must understand he must go to jail for this. Drains that are 8 ft deep can’t be left unbarricaded,” added the court.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by Jhunnu Lal Srivastava, a resident of Mayur Vihar Phase 3, for action against the contractor and officials of the DDA for their alleged negligence leading to the death of the woman and her three-year-old son.

Tanuja (22) and her son Priyansh (3) drowned in a half-open under-construction drain in a waterlogged street in east Delhi’s Ghazipur area as heavy rains lashed Delhi-NCR on July 31 evening.

The incident occurred around 8 p.m. near the Khoda Colony area.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)